Zelenskyy to discuss land, security guarantees with Trump on Sunday
"A lot can be decided before the New Year," says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
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KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants to discuss territorial issues, the main stumbling block in talks to end the war, with US President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday (Dec 28), as a 20-point peace framework and a security guarantee deal near completion.
Announcing the meeting, Zelenskyy said "a lot can be decided before the New Year," as Washington drives efforts to end Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine, Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.
A security guarantee agreement between Ukraine and the US is "almost ready" and the 20-point plan draft was 90 per cent complete, Zelenskyy told reporters in a WhatsApp chat.
"He doesn't have anything until I approve it," Trump told Politico in an interview published on Friday. "So we'll see what he's got."
Zelenskiy told Axios that the US offered a 15-year deal on security guarantees that could be renewed, and Kyiv wanted a longer term.
Wary of failed guarantees from allies in the past, Ukraine is seeking robust and legally binding deals to prevent further Russian aggression.
Zelenskyy said his meeting with Trump aimed to "refine things" in the drafts and to discuss potential deals on Ukraine's economy.
He added that he was not ready to say if any deal would be signed during his visit, but Ukraine was open to it.
Trump said he believed the meeting was going to go well, while he expected to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin "soon, as much as I want".
SENSITIVE LAND ISSUES
Territorial issues remain a hurdle to negotiations moving forward.
"As for the sensitive issues: We will discuss both Donbas and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. We will certainly discuss other issues as well," Zelenskyy said as he unveiled the agenda for the meeting.
Moscow demands that Ukraine withdraw from the parts of the eastern Donetsk region that Russian troops have failed to occupy during almost four years of war, as it seeks full control of the Donbas, comprising the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Kyiv wants the fighting to be halted at the current lines.
The US, seeking a compromise, proposed a free economic zone if Ukraine leaves parts of the Donetsk region. The proposal gave no details on how the zone would function.
Zelenskyy was cited by Axios as saying that if he is not able to push the US to back Ukraine's "strong" position on the land issue, he is willing to put the 20-point plan to a referendum - as long as Russia agrees to a 60-day ceasefire to allow Ukraine to prepare for and hold the vote.
Trump, who has at times expressed frustration with the slow pace of progress in the negotiations, previously suggested that he would meet with Zelenskyy if he felt that a major diplomatic advance was possible.
European leaders might join the talks online, according to Zelenskiy.
On Friday, he discussed preparations for the Sunday meeting and progress in talks with some European leaders, including NATO chief Mark Rutte and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who is seen as close to Trump.
RUSSIAN STANCE
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Kyiv's version of the 20-point plan was radically different from what Russia has been discussing with the US, according to Interfax-Russia.
He added, however, that: "I think that Dec 25, 2025, will remain in our memory as a turning point, when we came closer, indeed closer, to a solution."
Putin's foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, spoke with members of the Trump administration after Moscow received US proposals about a possible peace deal, the Kremlin said on Friday. It did not disclose how Moscow viewed the documents.
Russia's Kommersant newspaper reported that Putin told some of Russia's top businessmen that he might be open to swapping some territory controlled by Russian forces elsewhere in Ukraine, but that in exchange, he wanted the whole of the Donbas.
Even as the talks proceeded, Russia continued hammering Ukraine's energy infrastructure and stepped up attacks on the southern region of Odesa, the site of Ukraine's main seaports. On Friday, a Russian attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv killed two people.
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